During the 2008 campaign, Mr. Reid repeatedly taunted Senator John McCain of Arizona, the Republican nominee, saying he should show leadership. He told a Las Vegas newspaper, “I can’t stand John McCain.”…

Mr. Reid called Senator Bill Frist, the Republican leader from 2003 to 2007, “amateurish,” and said in 2007 that Gen. Peter Pace, then the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was “incompetent.” Mr. Reid once said that Alan Greenspan, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve, was “one of the biggest political hacks we have in Washington.”

On top of that, his aides say, Reid genuinely believes his source — an old friend and longtime investor at Romney’s former company Bain Capital — who told the Senate majority leader a couple months back that the GOP nominee didn’t pay taxes for at least a decade…

“What’s the downside? Jon Stewart getting all serious and haughty? Harry Reid could not care less,” said one Reid confidante. “There is no one in politics with a thicker skin. He’s having the last laugh. Reid’s strategy is working. It’s filling news holes and driving conversations.”…

Asked if the Obama campaign agreed with Reid’s comments, Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt said: “Reflecting the growing number of questions Americans have about Mitt Romney’s finances, Sen. Reid rightfully pointed out that Gov. Romney has something to hide.”

***

According to a source familiar with Reid’s thinking, the majority leader, a former boxer, considers himself a political street fighter now, willing to throw a punch and get hit back big time for a cause. In this case, the cause is making sure the topic of Romney’s tax returns remains in the news, and in the campaign narrative.

The source said Reid is “happy to mix it up and put this back in the news” and added the “finger waggers of the Acela corridor won’t dissuade him from speaking his mind.”

Reid, the source said, is unconcerned about the hits he is taking on making unsubstantiated claims, because the Democratic base is fired up…

“I’ve known Sen. Reid for many, many years, and occasionally he displays some rather erratic behavior,” McCain said on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360.” “To accuse someone of doing something without a shred of proof–that the allegation has any substance–is really something I, frankly, don’t understand.”

***

“I’m not sure what that line is for him. He keeps moving it further and further,” Ralston said when asked whether Reid crossed the line of propriety. “There are two sides to Reid. He says some intemperate things and he’s not very polished with the media. Then there’s the other side of Reid that is incredibly calculating. He has a goal in mind and he’s sticking fast to it.”…

“It’s absolutely constructive and a very important role not only for getting Obama’s back but also for America,” said Charles Chamberlain, executive director of Progressive Congress. “What frustrates me is Reid seems to be the only one. I’d like to see more senators, more surrogates and more Republicans call out Romney for not doing what other candidates have done, release their tax returns. Thank God for Harry Reid.”…

Thomas F. Schaller, a political science professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, said Republicans cannot blame Reid because they did not condemn attacks against Sen. John Kerry’s (D-Mass.) war record during the 2004 presidential campaign.

“Mitch McConnell and the Republican crowd weren’t saying the Republican attack on John Kerry was beyond the pale. If that’s not offside, this isn’t offside,” he said. “For years Democrats were criticized for not being tough enough and when they get tough they get criticized for being over the line.”

***

Spew first and sweat the details later, or never. Speak loosely and carry a stick-thin collection of backup materials, or none at all. That’s the M.O. of the moment, familiar from the past but in particularly galling and profuse flower of late.

It has spread beyond the practiced rabble-rousers of the far right, and Democrats are exuberantly getting in on this unbecoming, corrosive game. For many years they bemoaned an unfair fight: Republicans were by and large willing to play faster, looser and flat-out nastier than they were. Is there as much credibility to that lament today?…

DO one tribe’s antics justify the other’s? Is this a road we really want to continue barreling down? We’re already on it, thanks in part to a presidential contest in which each candidate’s main pitch — I’m not half as awful as the other guy — points everything in a negative direction.

***

Reid signaled Friday that he’s not relenting in his attacks. He accused Romney of being “the most secretive presidential candidate since Richard Nixon” and pointed out that even nominees overseen by the Senate Finance Committee have to produce more tax returns that Romney is willing to release.

“Forget about president — Mitt Romney couldn’t get confirmed as a cabinet secretary,” Reid said. “The contents of the one year of returns he has released would probably be enough to tank his nomination anyway: secret overseas bank accounts in Switzerland and the Cayman Islands, tax avoidance tricks and a lower tax rate than middle-class families pay.”

***

MARTIN: And that’s politics. The bottom line is if the shoe was reversed, I guarantee —

PONNURU: So why are you playing it Roland?

MARTIN: — you the “National Review” and the GOP would be all over the Democrats saying release your taxes and you know it.

PONNURU: The “National Review” said that Romney should release his taxes.

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“I remember Christmas of 1968 sitting on a gunboat in Cambodia. I remember what it was like to be shot at by Vietnamese and Khmer Rouge and Cambodians, and have the president of the United States telling the American people that I was not there; the troops were not in Cambodia. I have that memory which is seared — seared — in me.”

However seared he was, Kerry’s spokesmen now say his memory was faulty.

I disagree. None of that answers the arguement laid out for Obama winning the electoral college, which is all that matters. Now unless you think Obama is going to lose whole states that democrats have normally won, the groups you mentioned don’t matter Except. in the swing states btw most echo reports I have read show Obama winning even with out those states.

Politricks on August 4, 2012 at 9:29 PM

Right now Obama’s approval rating is under water in several of the states that he won last time…in fact, if he only wins the states where he has an approval rating that is actually higher than his disapproval rating, he will lose.

I live in Indiana, he won that last time, I don’t think there is any chance that will happen again.

Really? You are really trying to make moral equivalence here between having actual records from Kerry’s service in Vietnam and actual testimony from people who served with and around Kerry and a nameless, faceless, investor in Bain who claims to have had access to 10 years or more of Romney’s tax records.

Really? Just how stupid do you think we are?

AZfederalist on August 4, 2012 at 9:38 PM

It’s beyond any kind of rational discussion anymore. These people are nuts. Can you imagine the kind of garbage they’ll be saying next week, in a month, in two months? I just shake my head.

“I remember Christmas of 1968 sitting on a gunboat in Cambodia. I remember what it was like to be shot at by Vietnamese and Khmer Rouge and Cambodians, and have the president of the United States telling the American people that I was not there; the troops were not in Cambodia. I have that memory which is seared — seared — in me.”

But, but, but we aren’t supposed to notice that Nixon, the President that Kerry blamed for, allegedly, sending him to Cambodia for Christmas in 1968, was not sworn in for his first term until nearly a month later.

The only punishment that screaming freak would feel… strip him of his Senate power and watch him come unglued..

mark81150 on August 4, 2012 at 9:37 PM

Reid’s power is granted to him by the Democrat Party. The president has no say over who the opposing party appoints or elects as their leadership. Just as Pelosi is now just the minority leader in the House Reid will probably remain minority leader in the Senate.

I remember my High School days in the early 1960’s….Harry and I would have settled this out behind the stadium…like real men.
That little lying chickenshit self-masterbating pedophile punk deserves a spanking….and the LDS Church should make it happen.
Blatant lying by a Member about another Member demeans the Church and all it stands for…or maybe it stands for nothing.
If this is the Mormon way, I want nothing to do with it!

Mitt should just say that when Obummer releases all his records, He will release his. Simple as that.

O/T
I bought a TIME MAGAZINE today, what a rag!!!! The story was” HOW GUNS WON “. WOW so many lies, I had to shoot off an email of there inconsistencys that they reported. I shot it to the editor, ya-all think he’ll respond?????? Lol

O/T
I bought a TIME MAGAZINE today, what a rag!!!! The story was” HOW GUNS WON “. WOW so many lies, I had to shoot off an email of there inconsistencys that they reported. I shot it to the editor, ya-all think he’ll respond?????? Lol

angrymike on August 4, 2012 at 10:01 PM

I looked at a copy of Newsweek at the bookstore. It is basically a pamphlet. I guess that is why they are doing away with the print magazine. Good riddance.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see both Reid and Pelosi quit when Romney is elected if there is also a GOP majority in both chambers.

I think Pelosi has only hung on as minority leader in the vain hope that Obama would win, or, at the very least, the Democrats would take back the House.

That hunger for power dies hard.

However, both are considered too old in their own party. The Democrats wanted Pelosi to step aside when she lost the Speakership. She clung to power and it caused problems within the party.

For Reid to do the same wouldn’t be appreciated by the Senate Democrats. He is damaged goods to them and once he no longer leads the majority, he’s of little value. It causes problems in the leadership and delegating chairmanships for important committees.

The problem for both Reid and Pelosi is that, as with all career politicians who’ve stayed to long at the party, they’ve lived in Washington D.C. too long. Their friendships, such as they are, are largely there. They’re entire social life centers around the Beltway. In their own districts back ‘home’ they are only as valuable as their access in Washington D.C. to those who still wield real power. When that ends, so, too, their circle of of power will diminish. They will fade to irrelevance as those who wish to use them for access realize they no longer have any.

America is at a moral inflection point. If she puts up with this and rewards these despicable merchants of mendacity, she is doomed. The social fabric is destroyed, probably irrevocably.

The difference between these accusations and those against Kerry are night and day. Kerry was obviously full of crap from tossing his “ribbons” to his seared, seared memory.

The Dems have abandoned all moral rightness. It’s all about power for them. Choose carefully and wisely, America. In a better world, we wouldn’t even be having this debate. But as it is, our future hangs in the balance.

Color me unsurprised if Reid ultimately says that he was talking about Romney’s first ten years (as a child.)

Peri Winkle on August 4, 2012 at 10:03 PM

That was kind of my thought also. That, or when he and Ann were both students and just starting out. Could easily see how he would not have paid taxes for those years and the first years building the business.

Thomas F. Schaller, a political science professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, said Republicans cannot blame Reid because they did not condemn attacks against Sen. John Kerry’s (D-Mass.) war record during the 2004 presidential campaign.

Professor Schaller, does that mean Kerry’s seared memory of hearing Nixon say on Christmas 1968 that we weren’t in Cambodia was actually an honest statment by Kerry?

We need a few more Jason Matteras to get every Democrat on the record about this. And Obama’s “you didn’t build that” statement. How is that we don’t yet have a well organized media to do this?

When it’s established that the entire Democrat Party are as vile as Reid and as marxist as Obama, and you see a majority of voters still vote for them with that realization, then you’ll know what needs to be done and you’ll realize just how worthless these Republican leaders have been. Things only improve after you acknowledge the problem.

cozmo on August 4, 2012 at 10:00 PM
So I was smart to exit stage left when I did. Good to know.

gophergirl on August 4, 2012 at 10:22 PM

You know, I read through QOTD this a.m. And it sure reminded of something….in fact, it reminded me of how a certain ex-commenter named J@ilbreak used to show up and shower praise on csdeven and bluegill and how bluegill used to shower praise on J@ilbreak as well. Are we sure thht csdeven, bluegill, J@ilbreak and Lourdes aren’t all socks of the same twisted nitwit?

Very cool. It evokes images of the old bazaars and the silk route. Belly dancers and hookas, smoke filled rooms with oriental rugs and embroidered pillows on the floor, brass lanterns and tables placed around the room.

All that harry reid is trying to do is suck oxygen out of the room that would fuel the fire on the economy. Thus, the more outrageous the comment, the more oxygen gets used talking about it. Kinda like our trolls…….it’s a tactic they use all the time. Outrageous comment, no facts, accusation, and it’s “fire away”…..

This has got to be Harry Reid’s reward to the middle class for supporting his reelection campaign in 2010. He is doing an excellent job standing with the missile class. We don’t need a coreless buffoon who will over tax working Americans in the WH

This has got to be Harry Reid’s reward to the middle class for supporting his reelection campaign in 2010. He is doing an excellent job standing with the missile class. We don’t need a coreless buffoon who will over tax working Americans in the WH

Uppereastside on August 4, 2012 at 11:05 PM

Do you even look at what you post? I’m sure that sounded good in your head. Should have left it there.

What part of everybody got a tax cut don’t you libs understand? It’s not as if Jugears is proposing to reduce taxes on the middle class, only keep the current rates in effect for taxpayers making less than $250K while raising the rates for those over $250K. Let me repeat that for you, no additional tax cuts are coming to the middle class, only the same rates they’ve been paying. Now, that doesn’t include the massive tax increases coming with ObamaTax that are going to hit everyone.

So how is this standing with the middle class again? Does making the rich pay more put more money in middle class pockets? Especially when Jugears’s plans don’t show using that tax increase to pay down the debt, only to further expand spending?